Observing by myself, the images were even clearer than seen in the memory of the Nevermore. It truly was an army that made its way up the mountains and, almost certainly, towards my valley. Seen from above, it was a disciplined group of elves, though curiously, they neither had the giant avians we had seen them ride before nor did they have those riding cats. It was purely an infantry force, without even wagons to carry supplies. But then, given the wide availability of magic bags, that shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, it was far simpler to use a magic bag to carry your load than it was to use a wagon.

There were maybe a hundred elves in the main body of the army but I’d have to carefully observe to see if there were more, to scout out the path and prevent unfortunate surprises.

“We should put our forces to the test,” I mused, watching the processing crawling up the mountain. They would need at least five days to reach my valley, simply because they couldn’t fly across the mountains, giving us more than enough time to bring our newly created forces to bear.

“Lenore, have the Nevermores scout widely, I don’t believe the elves would only send one small army, not with the message we all received,” I ordered, before focusing on Ylva.

“Organise the wargs,” I ordered, using the new name for the canine constructs. Ylva had objected to calling them wolves, so copying a name I had heard before worked just as well. “They are to go hunting in packs. Their job will be to blind that army and take a few chunks out of them. I’d like to know what the elves are planning,” I continued, making my doubt about the elvish tactics obvious. I didn’t believe the elves would send such a small group against us, not after they had lost about as many of their troops in the large battle after they had cornered Sigmir and me. Unless they had some sort of confidence or plan in mind, that would almost certainly make them lose their people.

Pulling my mind back, I dispersed the construct I had used to spy on the elves. Ever since I had started to create bodies for the remnant spirits, my ability to conjure and control constructs had gone up but at the same time, I realised just how many limitations there were. Without some sort of animus, I had to control them directly and while a dedicated construct was easier to control than my Ice Blades, it still took a lot of effort and focus, for relatively little gain, at least most of the time.

It made me wonder about the classes that could actually create constructs and use them. Were they similar to what I could do with the remnant spirits, infusing constructs of Astral Power with an outside force? And if yes, did that mean that a patient and thorough person with such a class could amass an army? Sure, it would take them orders of magnitudes longer than it had taken me with the help of the Nexus, but just because it would take some time didn’t mean it was impossible.

As I considered it, I realised that things weren’t as easy. The constructs I had created could sustain themselves due to a single, simple reason, namely the environment we were in. The Nexus had infused the area with Ice Astral Power for a long time and in that environment, the constructs could constantly take in a bit of power. Otherwise, each construct could run for some time, before the Astral Power originally infused into them was used up, leaving it as little more than a chunk of conjured Ice.

Movement broke me out of my reverie and I rose from my throne and looked into the valley. Ylva and Lenore were in the process of ordering the different groups and sending them out into the field. The first Nevermores had already taken flight and on their way out of the valley, they circled around the tower once, respectfully dipping their wings in passing.

Further down, the Wargs were moving into distinct groups, each made out of eight constructs that would act as packs. It was a structure we had planned before, small units working together, forming into a larger group. Eight packs of eight wargs formed a Chase and, in theory, eight chases would form a Hunt. So far, we didn’t quite have enough wargs to form a Hunt, we were a few short but that didn’t really matter. I had no doubt that getting harassed by hundreds of magically conjured constructs would be problematic enough to the elves. Especially given that the Wargs were only part of our forces.

Knowing that trouble would soon come into the valley, I logged out of Road to Purgatory, to deal with the usual necessities before things would get crazy.

Looking into the forum, I wasn’t too surprised that discussions regarding the Ice Queen, the various trailers and the end-of-beta event were at the top of the list. Some people were still questioning whether or not I had been a plant from the start, while others were complaining that only Arbortoma was getting an event.

Curiously, I noticed that it was almost entirely players of the later waves who complained about the event, while few of the initial waves did. It made me wonder, to the point that I sent a message to Mal, curious about what she had heard. We had been exchanging messages but after what had happened to Sigmir, I never really had the mood to ask.

Shaking my head, I decided to add a bit of fuel to the fire and posted a few images of the Frozen Citadel, nothing that would prepare anyone for the surprises I had prepared but enough to make people interested. While I wasn’t really interested in generating hype for the sake of interactions, I was proud of what Lenore, Ylva and I had done in that valley, in many ways it was a crowning achievement in my gaming career. It felt far more personal and important than even the titles I had won in the past. Maybe because I was, most likely, the only one who had managed this, while the titles I had won in the past were titles that were given out every year.

Once I was done with the Forum, I moved into the temple and began telling Sigmir about my achievements and troubles in the valley. I was quite proud of being the Ice Queen and important enough to have armies after me, even if it might become a pain in the neck. Maybe it was due to being acknowledged and treated as a ‘raid boss’, though I would have to make sure that nobody got any ideas about farming the Frozen Citadel, not that there would be any real loot.

As I was talking, new plans and ideas sprung up in my mind, some ideas feasible, others completely ridiculous but fun to imagine nonetheless. Here, in my temple, it didn’t feel like Sigmir was gone, and I could even occasionally hear her voice, reminding me of something or prodding me to think of a different solution to a problem. As if she was still with me.

It was a bittersweet sensation and one that I both hated and craved. After immersing myself for a bit, I moved out of the capsule, deciding on future plans. The beta would end within the month and my vengeance would be complete sooner. Once that was accomplished, I didn’t really plan to return to Mundus, until after the official launch was complete.

Even after the launch, there was a part of me that was hesitant, wondering whether or not I truly wanted to return. If there was no chance at reuniting with Sigmir, would I want to be reminded of what I had lost every day? Or would I want to try and…

Shaking my head, I pushed that thought from my mind and focused on more important matters, namely how to get the best start into the official launch. To me, it was quite obvious that I would have to go with the challenging way to generate my attributes, it had served me very well and I was planning to remain as Morgana and not change a lot about my choices.

That meant I should make sure I was in top form, so I could get the most out of those initial attributes, hopefully giving me a small headstart. It wouldn’t be massive but it might be the small edge I needed to succeed.

With a plan in mind, I gave Mrs Wu a call, scheduling some extra time at their gym for the next week. By then, my work on Mundus would be done, either in success or in failure.